20 6 MODERN TRAINING. 



The dog which follows the trail slowly but accurately, 

 picking out foot scent of single birds of the bevy, and plod 

 ding after them methodically by sure degrees, may afford 

 good shooting notwithstanding his painful slowness. On 

 single birds in warm, dry weather when the scent is poor, 

 he will accurately follow a single bird, the trail of which 

 would be imperceptible to the dog which carried a high 

 nose. Still, the slowness is a great objection. 



The most imperfect manner of reading is exhibited by 

 dogs which place their noses to the ground, sniffing and 

 pottering in an area of a few square yards. Such are 

 wholly unable to determine the course of a bevy, but are 

 usually zealous to do their best. Often they persist in snif- 

 fing in one place until the patience of the handler is ex- 

 hausted. Punishment will not correctthe fault. Undoubt- 

 edly the dog's manner of roading is governed by the sen- 

 sibility of his scenting powers and intelligence, -hence he is 

 unable to exceed his capabilities. 



Another very annoying and worthless manner of roading 

 is when the dog, from extreme cautiousness, drops to the 

 ground on a hot scent carefully swinging his nose right and 

 left, close to the ground in the segment of a circle, sniffs 

 the scent deliberately, and is loth to move. He walks or 

 crawls with painful slowness, continually repeating the 

 stopping and sniffing. His fault may be due to natural 

 over-cautiousness or to excessive punishment for flushing. 

 Birds in rainy, cloudy or windy weather, when they are not 

 disposed to seek concealment, will run completely away 

 from dogs of this kind. The dog cannot be called a good 

 performer which cannot, at least, road nearly as fast as the 

 birds can run. Slow roading may be successful when the 

 birds are lazy and indifferent, but when they .become wild 

 or restless from unpleasant weather, the slow roader be- 

 comes a very poor performer. 



